The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1887-05-19
Washington letter.
From our regular correspondent

The country youth or maiden who
reads of the happy lot of the Govern
ment clerk here, with his salary of
from $1,000 to $1,000 per year with his
leisure, and with the great ad
yantages, social, literary, and spectac-
ular, which life at the Capital affords,
is filled with longing. If the country
youth and maiden are not angels,
they may even be filled with envy,
The enchantment which distance
lends to alleged happy lots is often
provocative Of navy. Perhaps the
only happy lot is the little one Of six
by three feet upon which daisies clus-
ter, butin which there is enchantment
only for those who have seen rides
cent bubbles of life burst at the touch
including even the bubble of a govern
ment position, But this is a digres-
sion from the strait and narrow path
of Washington correspondent.
Your correspondent wishes to ex-
plain that he was not discharged, he
resigned and retired into the business
Of journalism, and | look back on my
experience as a Government clerk
without envy or longing. But to the
average ex-clerk the retrospect is
much less enviable now, than it was
then in 1873. Perhaps the greatest i'll
and terror OF youth is the school ex-
animation. Oh! dost thou remember?
Think of a life OF protracted school
examinations Such is to be the future
life of the Government clerk! He may
no longer drive his pen in peace, or
furtively read his newspaper, Presi-
dent Cleveland has decreed that he shall
stand an examination or promotion,
whether he wants promotion or not,
and that ifhe fails to reach an aveaage
OF 70 per cent, he must step down and
cut. Saints, sinners and the Beecher
family but this is hard on the gilded
and kalsomined youth and maiden
whom Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Author,
Blaine, Malone, Conkling and all
those illustrious spoilers pensioned
upon the Treasury.
The very idea of Il competitive ex-
animation is quite paralyzing, for
they know little spelling, and less
arithmetic. Geography, mahogany,
physics and Mysteries are all the same
to them. There has been an increas-
ed demand for school books in Wash
ington during the past week, and the
Capital of the United States is likely
be the paradise of pedagogues. Al
ready they have advertised to prepare
applicants for civil service examina-
ton. But the fact, and the fact re-
mains that an education cannot be
improvised, and the middle aged Re-
publican clerks who have impaired
their minds as well as their hearts in
straining to keep alive the memories
and the policy OF the war, have nc
vitality left for the study of text
books.
The past week added another to the
many pageants which Washington
has witnessed The Statue of Gar.
field was unveiled with much parade
and oratory. Ex-Speaker Kiefel
made prolix and turgid address,
The President had a hard role to en-
act as representative Of the Nation in
accepting the monument, which be
did in little speech which was not
very bad, considering the necessary
embarrassment which we'll informed
honest man must feel when called up.
on to speak well of a small politician
a narrow partisan, and President
who was the weak puppet OF Blaine
Is the President well informed? Has
he forgotten the part that Garfield
took in defrauding the country of its
chosen president in 1876? Has he for.
gotten that it was this same man who
from the stump told Republican au.
diences in an era OF peace, twenty
years after the war to look along the
barrels OF their rifles and vote as they
shot? Say nothing but good of the
dead Classic bosh Then erect stat
ues in honor of Nero and Judas Iscar.
lot, for they too are dead I am sick
of these everlasting statues to spurious
mushroom fame Tilden, whom Gar.
field defrauded Of the Presidency, and
thus made his owe election possible
can afford to wait a hundred years
for his statue, but when it is built no
one looking even at Washington's
monument should be able to say ex-
celsior.
Great captains with their guns and drums
Disturb our judgment for the hour;
But at last silence comes:
These all are gone, and standing like a tower
Our children shrll behold his fame.
Astonishing Success.